Hyperacusis Was Improving — Then a Door Slammed Beside Me and Symptoms Are Now Back Worse

My hyperacusis was improving over the last two months. I've had it since start of the summer. I was noticing my ears were less sensitive and not feeling full... and then a door slammed beside me on Wednesday...

Fullness is back, sensitivity to sounds is high, ears are cracking and popping, pains on the sides of the head... And tinnitus is louder...

Did I now lose all the recovery I made over the last two months? Back to square one?

 

Hi Lionel:

I am sorry to hear what happened to you.

I've had hyperacusis for quite a long time, and I never experienced anything like what happened to you in the first months that I came down with hyperacusis, and never afterwards. A slam like that would only maybe make me worse for a few hours, and in the ear closest to the noise, even when I had severe periods of hyperacusis. This is very puzzling. I wish I could help you out with good advice because I know you must be very worried.

The only obvious thing I can recommend is to steer clear of loud noise sources that you are aware of, so as to not make things even worse. As far as those sources of noise that surprise us, you are just going to have to put up with it FOR NOW. Thankfully surprising sources do not happen that often in my experience. And your ears just may evolve to a point that such rapid unexpected noises will eventually not bother you too much as they do not bother most people with hyperacusis...unless they are REALLY loud (like a lawnmower going off next to you, or an alrm), which are rare occurrences. Even in these last instances, the ears should recover, as they ALWAYS have for me.

Good luck.

Marco

 

I can see how people can become reclusive with this condition....
A door slamming might not seem loud but it felt like a gun shot.
Hyperacusis is like snake and ladders....my noise tolerance has gone way down again

 

Those are the long-term cycles of hyperacusis. It tends to get cronic. Sometimes it takes months to see improvement and a split second, like a door slammed near you, to erase all the progress. This has happened to me many times, and in the long run I have lost hearing but still have some sort of hyperacusis, not as severe as years ago (because I lost hearing).

 

Yeah I thought a recovery was possible, feelings good/positive last week but unless there is some sort of medical miracle, life is pretty much done....

 

Lionel:

There are some that have recovered from far worse than what you are experiencing. Please hang in there. See the "Success Stories" on the Hyperacusis Network website. I have also spent months with severe hyperacusis and I always recovered to a tolerable level, as most do. I know that your despair and hopelessness are deep. I found that in those states, taking a benzo tranquiliser gave me a few hours REAL physical relief and thus some real hope that I could recover to that better place. And I always did. Do not worry about possible addiction. Is it not better to survive with an addiction (which is rare) than not survive at all?

I will be thinking of you and checking back here every day.

Marco

 

In Ireland there isn’t much access to benzos, having a drink instead , the first in a long while, definitely lowers the sensitivity, improves the mood ...... better then eating turmeric/cumeric all the time..... but not exactly a permanent solution.... though does make watching Netflix more entertaining

 

Get some musician's earplugs and wear them pretty much whenever you go out. They will lower the volume of everything but not block the sounds so you hear things pretty normally. They are not usually high dB blockers, but will take the edge off things like shopping carts slamming, or car doors slamming, kids screaming etc. After awhile you will recover and find yourself forgetting the plugs and not wincing when someone makes an unexpected noise.

 

@Lionel
I wish you improve even more and get rid of what you don't want to have.

Stay hopeful, If it was improving before, it can improve again, just don't lose hope, I know what you mean, having a setback is even worse than H &T.

I don't think you lost the progress you made so far, it may take some time to get back to that level and further improve from there. But hope talks.

I don't wanna just spread hope but positivity does play a big role here.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement.... I'm usually not one for complaining... but hyperacusis is like some sort of farcical nightmare.... but yeah who knows maybe it will go away by itself or fx 322 fixes everything...

 

A spike like that can last a few days or even weeks but it doesn't mean you are back to square one.

The doors in my house all have strong springs so I'm well aware of what you are describing. You can get plastic clips for the door edges that stop them slamming loudly. I've educated everyone in my family about the effects on me of slamming doors, washing pots and pans etc.

If it's noise occurring when you are out and about, over which you have no control, then pop in some silicon musician's earplugs in those situations till things ease.

I've had great success from amitryptylene for reducing hyperacusis and helping me sleep.

Best of luck to you!

 

That's one hell of a drug.. seemed to fix 90% of all my tinnitus problems overnight.

 

My T is much the same but I can live with that considering the other benefits. Like you suggest my H started improving after the very first night.

 

Isn’t a amitriptyline a fairly powerful anti depressant ? There must be serious side effects ? Weight gain ?

 

Yes it can increase the appetite. But I'm on the minimum dose of 10mg which still has a powerful enough effect.

Actually feel a bit too sedated the next day so I've got another option now, an antihistamine tablet for night time instead.

 

Lionel:

Wow I didn't know I was talking to someone in Ireland. BTW I am in Canada. My roomate is Irish . Like my Italian ancestors, his came here a long time ago.

Boy, if there is one thing I miss is listening to traditional Irish music. All good music in fact. When I had a better case 10-15 years back, I could listen to music only on a good sound system. I think that is still the case,but now I do not have access to one , so no music. What a loss! Music on cheap tinny speakers kills my ears really fast.

Getting back to your problem, strange that there are no benzos available in Ireland. Well a few beers is better than nothing. But the alcohol only anesthesises, the benzos I take actually make the h. better for a few hours.

Take care.

Marco

 

@Earing Do you think the musician earplugs could be worn all the time? I had mine fitted but haven't gotten them yet but of course, they told me not to use them all the time or I would become more hypersensitive but normal talking voices are even often too loud right now. I had a couple of good days but keep getting set backs, even in my own home and partly my fault. Are the musician plugs comfortable? I have a hard time with the foam. And with tinnitus, wearing plugs is not ideal.

@Marc22 Please don't go recommending regular usage of benzos to people. Most people DO get addicted to them over time and with about 1/2 of the population that use them, there are serious consequences. So while you have not had issues and I'm happy for you that you have not, many do. They have ruined many lives, including mine, even while before, I thought they were great. So please don't go around recommending this for the sake of people's overall mental and physical health....I beg of you.

 

From my experience, you did not lose all recovery. With my tinnitus, about 3 months in, I had additional noise exposures. The first was when the alarm clock went off right beside my ear. The next was when a semi truck blew the air horn when I was nearby, about a month later.

In both cases, my tinnitus spiked back up to what I started with. I also had mild hyperacusis, that persisted as well. However, both times my tinnitus calmed down in about 2 to 3 weeks, although I felt at first that it was totally back to square one.

@Earing

I agree with the suggestion for musician earplugs when out, especially walking near traffic to avoid further exposures. I find foam earplugs a little more comfortable, but can sleep in musician plugs so they are still plenty comfortable.

It is impossible to prevent all setbacks.

 

I would not be someone to take medical advice from but... I was wearing mine when I drove my car, rode my bike, went shopping, bought gas etc. I used the cheap Doc's Pro Plugs clear. They are very comfortable, cheap and have a nice even eq. They are rated 20dB which is about 6.5dB drop. So not much, but it does take the edge off loud voices and other stuff. If I was at home by myself and it was quiet I would not wear them. But why subject yourself to high dB shopping carts clanging, wind and tire noise etc. When I was driving lots of times I put on the 3M Peltor X5A muffs with the Doc's. When I would do dishes I would wear plugs because of the clanging dish noise seemed so loud.

 

Remember when earplugs are touching the inside of the ear canal it triggers ear wax production. Then when you put in the plugs day after day it can push the wax into your ears and plug them up. The Doc's Proplugs do not go into the ear canal, but rather seal up the ear sort of like a toilet plunger. They are comfortable and reduce or eliminate the ear wax production.

 

My second night was a rough trip man.. I got numb hands, night sweats. Woke up at first because I had a panic attack that I had silence.. of all things. Then I was convinced I had low blood pressure.. Took some fruit juice and some salt and then ended up having screaming fleeting tinnitus all night even inside my dreams. Now I'm not even sure the drug was doing anything to the tinnitus or not.. Maybe I was just happen to be having my first good night on the first day I took it. I don't think I can continue with it after last night.

 

@Earing Your situation is very different than mine as I have 7 kids and am going to have to do something to get this worked out.....and I am in benzo w/d which induced mine so who knows how much is from that versus noise exposure, whatever. Do you also have tinnitus? How long did it take after wearing the plugs for your ears to finally settle, heal and get better?

 

Even if you did, in a month or two you will likely be back to where you were before the incident. Most people's hyperacusis goes away within a year.

 

If this time next year my H is gone I will be extraordinarily happy..... oddly enough I had mild hyperacusis about 10-15 years ago.... I didn’t realize what it was then.....

 

Yeah doctors here don’t give out benzos here very easily, they don't want people getting addicted but I did get prescribed sleeping pills initially
Alcohol makes the ears a lot less sensitive but then the next day it’s the opposite.
Traditional Irish music is no great loss, I was never a fan of that stuff !

 

Benzomom:

I have to disagree with your recommendation not to tell people that perhaps taking benzos once in a while might alleviate their h. for a few hours.You say that most people get addicted after a while. The person who moderates BenzoBuddies told me that MOST do NOT get addicted, and she has more experience than you, although not a doctor (my doctors and pharmacists never told me about any dangers with these drugs, although they recommend without hysteria that they should be consulted about weaning). Let me say that if I were in a lot of pain I would welcome morphine or any opoid to alleviate it, even if I got addicted. So what is the difference with taking benzos when you have severe h. or severe anxiety? Or taking anti-depresants if you are suicidally depressed. I am now trying an anti-depressant after a year of hoping that I would recover naturally from a moderate depression as I did once. But I am fed up now and
am willing to risk the anti-depressant because I do not even have the interest and energy some days to find myself a new place to live , made worse by having h. and thus not able to just live anywhere in this noisy Big City I live in. And the depression has cost me THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for what otherwise would be needless expenses. There are natural therapies for depression (like Bioenergetic Analysis) but they are expensive and rare because the psychiatric system rejects them for no good reason. So because I have no alternative I will try this anti-depressant.

Lives have been ruined by all these drugs but I would venture to say that that does not happen often for those taking these drugs for medical reasons and not sometimes for "recreational" reasons. . Sometimes people overdose accidentally, a few like you get tinnitus and or h., but that is rare. Risks have to be taken sometimes when you are at the end of your rope.

Bill Bauer:

Most people DO NOT recover totally from h.. Those who do are a rare minority. None of the people that I have known with h. have ever recovered totally, although most have improved.. I have had h. for 24 years and I do not expect ever to recover totally even if I tried TRT again. Don't go putting false expectations into people's heads.

Lionel: My ears have never been worse during a hangover. Even the rare bad one. Strange.

Marco

 

It ought to get a lot better 6 months from now. For most people hyperacusis isn't a permanent problem.

 

Yes I have tinnitus and it has taken about 4-6 months. I got over confident the other night and played my guitar and sang without earplugs and the t and h came back to some degree. I will have to remember to never again think my hearing issues are healed. They may abate, but are read to come back at a moments noise.

 

Can you get fined in your country for driving with earmuffs?

 

some doctors say, regarding anti-inflammatories, corticoids and benzos, that it is a matter of trial and error to find the ones that best suit you.

Any other important side effects of amitryptiline?